Year: 2021

At today’s registration conferral ceremony, JTEC commissioner, Dr Dameon Black, said it was a public demonstration of its faithfulness to its mandate, which is to register institutions across Jamaica. 

“One of the things that characterises Jamaica’s higher education space is the significant institutional diversity. Currently, we have on our register 147 entities that we monitor and that we are seeking to register, in keeping with our mandate,” Black said. 

On the submission of a registration application, institutions are checked for 11 standards and inspections are carried out before they are awarded certification. 

The standards are: legal status and regulation, philosophy and strategy, governance and accountability, financial viability and sustainability, academic programmes, quality and integrity, human resource requirements, student services, health and safety policies and procedures, physical and electronic resources and infrastructure, risk management and assessment and non-discrimination. 

Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Fayval Williams reasoned that JTEC’s mandate is to create an environment within which institutions can function sustainably and gain access to funding for sector-specific research that will enable them to further develop programmes that meet current and future needs of the workforce. 

“It is imperative that we establish and maintain rigorous national and institutional quality assurance standards in education. People entering educational institutions at all levels must have the confidence that the training offered is of the highest quality,” said Williams. 

Williams commended the institutions that were conferred with registration and urged others to make their applications. 

Institutions newly registered with JTEC: 

* The International Postgraduate Medical College 
* Church Teachers’ College
* Moneague College
* Sigma College of Nursing and Applied Sciences
* Brown’s Town Community College
* Caribbean School of Medical Sciences, Jamaica CSMSJ)
* Institute of International Recognized Qualifications (IIRQ)
* Institute of Nutrition and Wellness Studies (INWES)
* Media Technology Institute
* SMTC Career Institute
* Allied Healthcare Institute of the Caribbean Ltd.

The Ministry of Education and Youth has received approximately $365 million this fiscal year as budgetary support for its scholarship programme.

The programme provides a wide range of scholarship opportunities to students who are desirous of pursuing tertiary studies.

While delivering her sectoral presentation in the House of Representatives recently, Minister of Education and Youth, Hon, Fayval Williams, said that the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission (JTEC) maintains two databases, which provide timely information, especially to students preparing for entry to tertiary education.

The Programme Tuition Fee (PTF) database has information on programmes of study, including costs, length/duration, modality and the qualifications awarded.

The PTF database allows users to have a simultaneous glance of programmes of study offered across a variety of institutions. The objective of the PTF is to increase access to information on tuition fees at the tertiary-education level.

Meanwhile, the Scholarship database provides details on scholarships as well as other financing options available to Jamaican students to study in Jamaica.

According to Minister Williams, there are also initiatives to develop teacher competencies and retain them in the system, which is important.

“The Ministry afforded scholarships in a number of subject areas to persons who have an interest in teaching,” she said.

Tuition funding is also available for tertiary students pursuing courses of study in education (STEM-related fields) under the Tertiary Students’ Assistance Programme, through scholarships.

Applications for the 2022/2023 Financial Year opened on April 1, 2022 and close in June 2022. Students may apply via the portal now hosted on the Ministry’s website.

In addition to scholarships, $180 million in funding is also available through grants and the Jamaica Values and Attitudes (JAMVAT) programme.

The JAMVAT programme is ‘voluntary/supported’ where, as part of contributing 200 hours of voluntary service, the Government will commit to fund up to $350,000 in tuition fees.

The Programme provides assistance to tertiary students who qualify for admission but are financially challenged to cover their tuition cost.

The original article can be found here.

Eleven tertiary institutions were registered with the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission (JTEC) and received certification during a Registration Conferral Ceremony held in Kingston today (November 17).

The certified institutions are: in St James – the International Postgraduate Medical College; in Manchester –  Church Teachers’ College; in St Ann – Moneague College; Sigma College of Nursing and Applied Sciences and Brown’s Town Community College; in Kingston – Caribbean School of Medical Sciences; Institute of International Recognised Qualifications; Institute of Nutrition and Wellness Studies, Media Technology Institute and SMTC Career Institute; and in Clarendon – Allied Health Care Institute of the Caribbean Limited.

In her remarks at the ceremony, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, the Hon. Fayval Williams, said that currently, 147 other tertiary institutions are certified to provide higher education across the island.

“These include universities, teacher training colleges, specialised training institutions, and vocational institutions that offer a variety of training and certification,” she said.

She also stated that it is important to maintain “rigorous national and institutional quality assurance standards in education, to ensure “confidence that the training offered is of the highest quality.s

“Governments are increasingly understanding that the entire educational system from early childhood through tertiary education must reflect the new social and economic needs of the global knowledge economy, which increasingly demands a better trained, more skilled and adaptable workforce. The imperative of implementing and maintaining quality assurance standards has therefore taken on added significance,” she further stated.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of JTEC Dr. Dameon Black, said the commission remains committed to implementing the “global benchmark standards and supporting processes and procedures.

“We certainly commit through the integrated higher education system to accommodate a network of multiple providers offering opportunities to pursue educational provisions, the diversity in study provisions among learners, and certainly the diversity of ownership and control of provisions,” he said.

JTEC is an agency of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information with responsibility for regulating the tertiary education sector through assessing, placing, registering qualifications, and developing policy.

The original article can be found here